CASE STUDY

Standardizing processes across the health system enables pharmacists to expand their role in clinical carePyxis® ES system and Pyxis Pharmogistics® inventory management software helps Ochsner Health System centrally manage medication inventory and dispensing, freeing up time for pharmacists.

With the goal of enabling pharmacists to play a more

active role in patient care, Ochsner Health System in

New Orleans, LA opted to integrate their HIT systems

with the Pyxis® ES system and Pyxis Pharmogistics®

inventory management software solutions.

Expanding the clinical role of the pharmacist

Providing patient-centered care and education is vital

to reducing readmissions, length of stay (LOS) and

healthcare costs. To assist in providing the best care

possible, the role of pharmacist must quickly evolve.

However, current pharmacy workload is significant—from

dispensing medications, managing the formulary and

monitoring patient health to adding passwords and roles

for new hires or removing users from the system. With so

much to do, and limited time and resources, Ochsner turned

to technology to help better optimize their processes.

For example, implementing the Pyxis ES system with the

web-accessible Pyxis Enterprise Server enables pharmacy

resources to step out of the central pharmacy and remotely

perform system activities from anywhere. Pharmacists are

able to complete tasks from the floors while simultaneously

providing direct care to patients and assistance to nurses.

“Pyxis ES is moving in the direction that we see our

medication management moving in,” says Ginger Schnell,

Pharmacy IT Manager. “That direction is the pharmacist

providing assistance to clinical services—with our quality

improvement group and technicians managing dispensing

cabinets. We’re trying to move our pharmacists into more

clinical roles and have our support staff facilitate the

day-to-day functions. Pyxis ES gives us the flexibility

to do that.”

Simplified user management

The Active Directory capabilities of the Pyxis ES system

allows for greater centralization of user management

for the health system. The pharmacy no longer needs

to manage lost passwords, new hires or employee

terminations. Users are now passed directly from Active

Directory to the Pyxis Enterprise Server. The health

system then assigns roles, granting users the appropriate

permission and area access.

“Once they’re in Pyxis ES, each site can assign that nurse

an area and a role at that hospital,” says Suzanne Warren,

Director of Pharmacy. “Each hospital used to have their

own method of assigning user names. So each nurse used

to go to one hospital and have one user name, then go to

another hospital and have another username. It was very

confusing. Now no matter where they go it is the same

username and password as their hospital username

and password.”

A unified formulary

With Ochsner moving to standardize processes across

its enterprise, there was a strong push for the system

to establish one formulary across all sites. The integration

between the Pyxis ES system and the Pharmacy

Information System (PIS) resulted in one system

formulary for the entire health system, which can

still be adjusted as needed for each hospital.

“With separately managed systems, a single drug

could be listed with eight different descriptions—no

continuity. Now our central team can enter meds

matching Epic with the same view of drug, no matter

where they are or what system they are in. This gives

users confidence that they have the right med for right

patient at right time,” says Schnell.

“ If you’re part of a system, it allows you to function as a system with all your Pyxis devices.” Suzanne Warren Director of Pharmacy Ochsner Baptist Medical Center

A single integration engine

In addition to saving pharmacists time previously spent

managing user permissions and formularies, implementing

the Pyxis ES system also led to savings in the technical

management of the solution. Utilizing the CareFusion

Coordination Engine, Ochsner can add functionality and

devices as they grow.

“With Pyxis ES and Epic there isn’t nearly the level of

manipulation required for the interface (compared to the

previous system),” says Schnell. “There aren’t any custom

pieces that we need for any one site. It’s all across the

board. It was clean and easy to implement. Now, when we

have a new site coming up, all we need to do is test a few

orders. There really isn’t a lot of testing once you verify

what’s working. That has made it so easy.”

About Ochsner

Ochsner Health System is one of the largest independent

academic health systems in the United States and

Louisiana’s largest not-for-profit health system. With 13

hospitals owned, managed and affiliated, more than 40

health centers, more than 15,000 employees, over 2,500

affiliated physicians in more than 90 medical specialties

and subspecialties, Ochsner is Louisiana’s largest

health system.

© 2014 CareFusion Corporation or one of its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Pyxis, Pyxis Pharmogistics, CareFusion and the CareFusion logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of CareFusion Corporation or one of its subsidiaries. DI4421 (1214)

carefusion.com

Note

* Ochsner results reflect the hospital system’s medication management process in combination with Pyxis technologies.